I'm replacing a ceiling fan and found the same problem as Cathy Ashley with 3 each white, black and ground coming from ceiling. None were marked, and I couldn't remember how they were originally connected so I connected all white together and all black together and all ground together. I know very little about electricity. When I turned on the power and switch, man it popped and cared me to death. I was standing at the switch and turned it off immediately. I found the senario on this site and tested the wires as instructed. Problem is only two of the black wires are hot and none of the white are hot. So I don't know what to do.
Also, I replaced the switch and it didn't have any instructions. Is the black and white wires coming out of the wall supposed to be connected to the switch a certain way?

There's some good advice in that linked question, but for next time : take a photo and label wires...
– Solar MikeMar 5 at 15:41

3

You have a switch loop in there, so you need to send power down one of the whites and back via its partner black. It's probably the cable with the unpowered black.
– isherwoodMar 5 at 15:49

1

Isherwood that should be an answer, sounds like the switch loop created a short when switched on.
– Ed BealMar 5 at 15:59

Yeah, previously there was a splice between 2 blacks and a white and nothing else connected to that... they took it apart anyway and lost the information of which white that was. That was the mistake. Cables are manufactured in only B/W so color coding is less meaningful than people expect.
– HarperMar 5 at 16:03